Algeria censored reports by two daily newspapers that claimed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a Parisian hospital since last month, would be flown home in a coma after his health deteriorated on Sunday. Hichem Aboud, managing editor for the opposition French-language ‘Mon Journal’ and the ‘Arabic Djaridati’, told AFP the reports cited French medical sources claiming […]

More than 2,000 Nigerian troops have begun an offensive in Borno state to regain territory seized by Boko Haram Islamists, army sources said Thursday. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and two other states on Tuesday. More than 2,000 Nigerian troops have begun an offensive to retake territory seized by Islamist […]

A crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year’s fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast’s main city, killing 61 people — many of them children and teenagers — and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said. Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan’s Plateau district to see the fireworks. It was only the […]

The prime minister of Mali has been arrested as he tried to leave the country for France, officials say. A military spokesman says Cheik Mobido Diarra was suspected of trying to jeopardise planned political dialogue over moves towards democracy. The arrest was ordered by soldiers who helped launch March’s coup, he said. Tensions between the […]

Patrice Talon, a businessman alleged to be the mastermind of a plot to poison Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi, has been arrested in Paris following an extradition request from the West African state, his lawyer said on Thursday. Talon was arrested on Wednesday and required to hand over his passport to the French authorities, his […]

Mali on Wednesday appealed to the UN Security Council to urgently approve an international force against Islamist militants and rebels who have taken over the north of the country. France hopes that a Security Council resolution authorizing international military action will be passed this month. The United Nations has, however, reaffirmed questions about the force […]

  A shelter for homeless women will open soon in the Medina of Tunis, at the initiative of association "Beity" (my home). The centre was presented at a seminar held Friday in Tunis on the theme "Centres and Shelters for Women in Vulnerable Economic and Social Situation: Compared Experiences." Minister of Women and Family Affairs […]

  Judges in Egypt have refused to oversee a vote on the country’s new draft constitution, to be held in two weeks. The Judges’ Club’s decision follows a confrontation between Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court and Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi. The court said it was suspending its work after its members were prevented from […]

Tunisian courts yesterday dropped charges against the woman, who was raped by two policemen and then accused of public indecency after she came forward. “She was contacted by the judge to inform her that the charges were dropped and that the accusations against the aggressors have been retained,” said Saida Guerach, a lawyer representing the […]

  The same chants used against Hosni Mubarak were turned against his successor Tuesday as more than 200,000 people packed Egypt’s Tahrir Square in the biggest challenge yet to Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The massive, flag-waving throng protesting Morsi’s assertion of near-absolute powers rivaled some of the largest crowds that helped drive Mubarak from office last year. "The […]

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma’s family slaughtered 12 cows at his rural village at the weekend in a traditional ritual to help him keep his job, local media said Monday. The Times quoted one clan elder calling on the ancestors to protect Zuma against his rivals ahead of an African National Congress (ANC) leadership vote […]

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has won re-election with 58.7 per cent of this week’s presidential election, according to the country’s electoral body. His top rival, Julius Maada Bio, won 37.4 per cent of the ballots, according to official results released on Friday. Koroma has overseen an investment boom in the country’s resources sector […]

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Simone Gbagbo, the wife of Ivory Coast’s ex-President Laurent Gbagbo. She is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity committed in the wake of disputed presidential elections in 2010. Her husband is already awaiting trial at the court in The Hague on four charges of crimes […]

Pope Tawadros II was enthroned as the new leader of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority on Sunday in a ceremony at Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral attended by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil. Dozens of Coptic clerics in flowing robes took part in the ceremony, the first in four decades, as the Muslim premier watched on. Tawadros received […]

  The head of Guinea’s treasury was gunned down as she was driving home in what her colleagues describe as a brazen assassination aimed at silencing an official who had launched an investigation into the disappearance of millions in state funds. The forensic doctor who examined the body of treasury chief Aissatou Boiro after she was brought to […]

Barack Obama’s re-election gave some Kenyans this week a reason to celebrate, seeing the US president whose father was Kenyan as one of their own. But as Obamamania quiets down, the East African nation will surely refocus attention on its own elections, now less than half a year away. RNW caught up with the youngest […]

South Sudan has expelled a UN official who was carrying out an investigation into the human rights situation there. A government spokesman said the investigator had published "unethical" reports which had no truth in them. United Nations officials condemned the move, saying it violated South Sudan’s legal obligations. The expulsion could be related to a […]

  Amnesty International returned from a month-long mission to Ivory Coast with reports of torture, sexual abuse, state-sponsored militia attacks and death in custody from a country still reeling from last year’s presidential power struggle. More than 200 people to have faced illegal detention and torture include members of former President Laurent Gbagbo’s Front Populaire […]